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Are You A Creative or a Critic

Are you one of those people who can be seen typing furiously in response to a youtube video or a facebook post? Do you have fifteen one-star reviews on amazon because some things just don’t match up to your expectations? Are you always disappointed by the books and movies you consume, always giving people within earshot a piece of your mind? Are there people within earshot left given how much you complain about everything?

If you answered, “Yes,” to all of the above, you’re most likely a critic. I was listening to one of the episodes on the school of greatness, and the guest — Michael Port — was saying, you’re either a critic or a creative but you can’t be both. How things work is that the harsher a critic you are to other people’s work, the harsher a critic you are to your own work, so you’re less likely to produce.

And it really hit me how most of the people I come across are critics,and yet it is true their creative output wavers around the zero line. They complain about how everything is horrible or has room for improvement. And funny enough they are the ones who are more likely to care so much what others think about their lives.
But if you’re a creative, you’re too busy learning your craft, and producing work to leave a comment on someone’s youtube channel. You’re too busy producing work to care what other people’s response to it is. You’re too busy ignoring your inner critic — and your outer critic…

And yes, maybe there is room for critics in this world, since after all, reading reviews before spending time and money on a book or other piece of art is not a bad idea, but does the critic have to be you? There are many critics in the world already…give them space to work while you work on your own art.